First Six Lectures of 2012 Set!

Although we're ending a successful year at the gardens, preparations for 2012 have been going on for quite some time and we'll have the majority of our events, lectures, etc. planned very shortly and promoted on our website and thru other venues. Kris has already organized the continuation of our popular lecture series that ran thru this year. In 2011, we had 653 adults attend our 12 monthly lectures which is a nice average of 54 attendees per lecture. The momentum continues with a January 18th (Wednesday) lecture on Bonsai Basics given by Karl Bethke of the Badger Bonsai Society. The lecture will be from 6:30 pm to 8 pm. RBG members will be $5 with others asked for $10. This pricing will be consistent for this lecture series. We're hoping to get Karl back in April for a bonsai workshop too! The image directly above is a bonsai at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens (San Marino, CA). I've seen many bonsai collections and this one was spectacular as were the ones at the Chicago Botanic Garden, Hidden Lake Gardens maintained by Michigan State University (Tipton, MI) and Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.

Orchids for Everyone will be offered on Wednesday, February 15th (6:30 pm - 8 pm) by Dee Speaker of K&W Greenery (Janesville). I can't recall an orchid topic here and Dee is very knowledgeable. Both the bonsai and orchid topics were heavily requested as topics by attendees of our 2011 lectures. We always appreciate input and are happy to oblige with facilitating these educational opportunities. On Wednesday, March 14th, Jeff Miller of Land of the Giants Hosta Farm (Milton, WI) will be presenting on Hostas, Hostas, Hostas!. This presentation will also be between 6:30 pm - 8 pm at the Parker Education Center. Jeff has donated many hostas to the gardens and has been a great source of information as well. His nursery is also top notch and his entire landscape (including the nursery) will be one of the destinations for our 2012 Home Garden Tour (July 21st, 2012, 10 am - 4 pm). Our April 18th speaker will be Jay Bando of Bando Organics (Madison, WI). Jay will be discussing Healthy Soils - Healthy Plants - Healthy People. Jay is well known for his knowledge and experience regarding organic gardening methods, composting, compost teas and their application and we're very excited to have him present at the gardens. I've known Jay for years and have enjoyed our conversations on topics that are becoming increasingly more relevant for all gardeners. The topic title speaks for itself. Unfortunately I didn't have a "pretty" shot of compost tea but the bucket of tea below is the leachate from my brother's worm bins (composting). He uses both the tea and the worm castings out in his garden. Last year we sold both worm castings and "worm tea" at our spring sale and saw some interest in both products but also quite a bit of confusion that should be addressed in this lecture. On Wednesday, May 16th (6:30 pm - 8 pm), I'll be presenting Vertical Gardening: Growing Your Gardens Upwards. This is a topic that has always been of interest to me and we're staring to dabble with some vertical "opportunities" here at RBG. This discussion will include vines and upright supports and structures that will maximize smaller gardening spaces. I'll also talk about the "green wall" movement and show some neat examples of going vertical as seen in the image to the left that I took at Chicago Botanic Garden in late September of this year. The orange you see are dwarf snapdragons and all the white blooms are from the perennial heath aster (Aster ericoides 'First Snow') which we have at RBG as well. This upright planter (very accessible) is showing it's third transition after having both a spring and summer display. Our June 20th presentation will be on Wisconsin Lichens: Love 'em or Like 'em by Dr. Jim Bennett from The Nelson Institue for Environmental Studies at UW-Madison. Dr. Bennett will cover lots of information on lichens and dispel some of the myths regarding their growth. Lichens are quite interesting and Jim is one of the foremost experts on this topic.

Kris will be further developing this lecture series along with workshops, evening events, Smelly Garden opportunities, youth education, etc. The spring symposium (March 24th, 2012) is coming together nicely as well. Stay tuned!

Quiet day today. Urban and Pat were out pruning this morning and I saw Maury, Bill O., Julie G., Kay and some others today. I'm blogging early as I'll take a Siesta this afternoon before returning to fire up the Holiday Lights Show for our first official night this evening (4:30 pm - 8 pm)!!!

Setting Up Some Winter Work

Today was quite busy with volunteers at the Horticulture Center and despite some cooling temperatures, quite a bit of gardening was accomplished today. Most of my activities today resulted in creating more work for others and/or myself! At the top is a picture of the beginnings of our 2012 seed order. As I put together the orders, I enter everything on to this sheet which will later help us sort and organize the seeds and ultimately the returning plants from the greenhouses in May and early June. To the left are the remnant blooms of the 'Ozawa' ornamental onion (Allium thunbergii) which is actually still blooming (note buds in the middle right of the image)! To the lower right is a neat winter container arrangment I photographed yesterday at K&W Greenery (Janesville).

Directly above (left to right) are Pat M., Urban and Larry. The four of us walked through most of the gardens for 1.5 hours this morning to talk about pruning priorities, target plants, severe cutbacks and five larger removals. I put flagging tape on many of the "targets" and the guys will have no shortage of work over the coming months. I do hope for good snow cover this winter but hopefully not enough to dissuade these guys from continuing their "pruning onslaught." After our tour, Pat and Urban went right out and started on pruning and some of the smaller removals. They'll be back tomorrow and I think they'll make a good team. Larry (and Little Jerry) have done most of the winter pruning in the past and I hope we're able to get thru the entire gardens as there is not a woody plant out there that couldn't use at least a little attention. Larry H. was out in the gardens collecting more leaves (see directly below). The carpenters (Dave, Jim, Bob A., Vern) had multiple projects to work on and the second image below shows the guys figuring out the support system for some horizontal, elevated planters we'll have next year (should be cool!). Dick H., Del and Maury were in to help with various projects and we also saw Big John, Bill, Dick P., Glenn D. and many others today. Bill O. was in this afternoon to help Larry with some tasks and we also had Evergreen Irrigation here to repair some major valve issues that are connected to the water supply for the gardens proper. During our walk around this morning, I saw the flower structure above and did a double take as I didn't recognize it. There were a couple of these near the zig-zag bridge and as I got closer for a photo opportunity, I recognized these as the last remants of our spring ornamental onions (Allium 'Purple Sensation') which bloom in late May / early June. Many people leave the spherical flower/seed heads as they dry for summer structure. They will typically hold on to rounded ends at the edges of the sphere and those I noted today had shed those and looked like "starry tumbleweeds" for lack of a better description. Flower structure in the garden is always important although I've never observed it in December until now! To the right is one of the thorny stems of the Devil's walking stick (Aralia spinosa) which is also called Hercules' club. This woody plant spreads vigorously by suckers and our only specimen "grove" is along the edge of our Horticulture Center property as the perfect screen. The best attribute of this woody plant are the huge, creamy flowers in late summer.

We had a meeting of our Spring Tree Sale Committee today and finalized our order for the April 20th-21st Tree Sale (8 am - 3 pm) that we'll offer in conjunction with the Blackhawk Golden K club as we did last year. This sale will correspond to our Earth Day activities next year and we're offering seedlings of white pines (Pinus strobus), Black Hills spruce (Picea glauca var. densata), Colorado blue spruce (Picea pungens glauca), Norway spruce (Picea abies), concolor fir (Abies concolor), Eastern arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis), sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa). All seedlings will be $1.85 although there is a 10% discount for 50+ trees. More details will be on our website in January regarding this event. All proceeds from this event benefit RBG as well as the Golden K efforts for children around the world. Directly below is a nice patch of smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle') at K&W Greenery which is still showing some nice winter interest and will stand up to snow. At the bottom is a photo shared by our grounds horticulturist Janice. Her daughter was married at the gardens late this past year and this is a photo of both rings on top of Autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale 'The Giant'). I thought this looked pretty cool although Janice hasn't seen the bill yet for abusing those tender flowers....

Poinsettias Revisited

All the photos in this blog were taken (with permission) this morning at K&W Greenery in Janesville, WI. Check out their website at www.kwgreenery.com/ for more information on location, hours, neat plants and much more for sale. I met with Chris W. at K&W as he will be custom growing some fun tropicals for us next year. Upon entering the greenhouse, I was amazed by the variety of "enhanced" poinsettias available for purchase. Poinsettias have sure come a long way over the past decade! K&W has a national reputation for not only their poinsettia variety but the creativity involved. I believe Chris W. does most, if not all, of the enhancements. I wont even pretend to know how these are painted and enhanced with glitter and other materials. While they weren't lacking for traditional red, white and pink varieties, these painted poinsettias were quite eye catching and each was subtly different. I particularly like the "tie-dyed" or "watercolor" looks to some of them. Neat stuff.

The history of poinsettias is quite interesting and is easily found in reference books or on the internet. There are some stories that also explain how this plant is tied in to the Holiday season and New Year. The most common misconception is that they are poisonous to humans. Ohio State University did a study that indicated that a 50 lb. child could eat 500 bracts (the colorful, modified leaves that provide the color) and only have a stomach ache (who wouldn't?). Poinsettias (Euphorbia pulcherrima) are native to Central America and tropical Mexico. Joel Robert Poinsett was the first U.S. Ambassador to Mexico (appointed by Pres. Andrew Jackson) and first brought this plant back to the United States in 1825. Needless to say, this plant became very popular and over $300 million in poinsettias are currently purchased domestically each year. Poinsettias, while produced in all 50 states, come primarily from California and roughly 90% of those produced domestically are exported. You missed National Poinsettia Day on December 12th but can still celebrate with the purchase of this popular holiday plant. Research more information on the care of this plant to maximize the "duration of appeal" for your selection(s). One of the best references I ran across was from the University of Illinois (http://urbanext.illinois.edu/poinsettia/index.cfm).
Today was fairly quiet at the Horticulture Center. I worked on my normal rotation of seed ordering, presentation preparations, label research and some other duties. I have some new topics to develop for the Wisconsin Public Television Garden Expo (February 10,11,12) at the Exhibition Hall of the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, WI. RBG has had a booth for the past 14? years or so and will do so again. After the New Year, we'll be selling advance tickets to this event out of our gift shop. I've always enjoyed presenting at this event as I believe it exposes people to the gardens and I always include some sweet garden shots of RBG to get them hooked on visiting. My topics this year are "Eat Your Landscape", "Gardening Vertically" and "Annuals of Interest". I've always done a talk on new and exciting annuals at this event but of course it is different each year. Crowds for these lectures have varied in the past but the educational component of this event has become so popular that I've seen full rooms for most topics. The attendance of 20,000 last year was a record and our booth is in a nice location for exposure. K&W Greenery had a booth last year too. Attendees (and vendors) aren't just from Southern WI as we talk to people from central and Northern WI as well as IL, IA and MN.

Janice was in today to work on her vegetable collections research for 2012. We also saw Kris K., Bill O., Dr. Gredler and Dawn T. It rained pretty well today and while many would prefer snow, this extra moisture before the ground freezes can only help the garden, particularly our conifers. The weather still looks good for the start of the Holiday Lights Show this Friday, December 16th (4:30 pm - 8 pm). Maybe we'll get some white stuff soon enough to augment the HLS.

Deer Spotted!...In the Parker Center

The deer spotting occurred this morning in the Parker Education Center (as seen above). These deer thankfully don't eat much and are part of the large model train display that was set up this past weekend by members of the Wisconsin Garden Railway Society. The train display has been part of this event for the past 10? years and is always a big hit with kids of all ages. Members of the group bring different trains each night of the Holiday Lights Show (HLS) and the set-up will vary from year to year. We appreciate their involvement and while the trains are a big attraction at the HLS, there are also refreshments, entertainment, gift shop options, etc. Santa is involved from time to time and there are also some kids crafts and a really neat quilt display by the Rock Valley Quilters Guild (see photos below). Check out the HLS details at www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org. The event begins this Friday, December 16th (4:30 pm - 8 pm). With the most marketing for this event ever kicking in this week (radio, TV, billboards, etc.) we hope to have a strong attendance. We wont have any rain this weekend but the weather will at least not be too cold. To the right are the golden needles of the 'Aurea Jacobsen' dwarf, golden Norway spruce (Picea abies). This is one of our many conifers that really becomes a winter contributor with vivid foliage. There wasn't much activity out in the gardens today although I was able to do a tour and make sure all was well with the HLS set-up. Larry worked on various equipment repairs and helped haul various items around in preparations for the HLS decorating going on at the Parker Education Center. I met with Kelli this morning and we both then headed in to our monthly Garden Development & Maintenance Committee Meeting that also included Dr. Gredler, Chris R., Big John, Gary, Dick P., Joanne, Iza and Maury. We talked quite a bit about 2012 plans and reflected on a pretty good 2011 out in the gardens. After another meeting (staff meeting), I started "composing" my first seed order (Pinetree Garden Seeds) and will continue these efforts over the next month or so. I'm also putting major efforts in to getting information together to continue our momentum with creating our woody plant labels. In some regard, it's nice not to have one repetitive project that would make me stir-crazy. However, juggling the immediacy and priority with 20+ projects can be overwhelming too. I'll put on the blinders soon and focus on seeds and spring presentation preparations. To the left and right are additional golden conifers that offer some nice color during the bland winter months. To the left is the 'Gold Coin' golden Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). This pine gets it's best golden coloration in the winter months. The most vivid golden conifer we have (lower right) is the 'Chief Joseph' lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) which also gets the best golden yellow in the winter. Now that is a beacon in the landscape! I show this one in my winter blogs every year as you can't walk by without taking a picture.

Today, we also saw Chris from L.P. Tree Service, Luis and Bill O. was in to help Larry this morning and afternoon. Chuck S. was in to process our recycling and we had some other "pop in" visitors as well. The Horticulture Center is far from desolate in the winter and we'll begin our HLS takedown/processing as well as painting, staining, etc. right after the New Year. Directly below is some slight "orangey" winter coloration on the evergreen wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei 'Emerald N' Gold') near the alpine garden. At the bottom are 100+ geese out on some thin ice (right off the North Point garden) that couldn't get organized for a group photo. Lots of geese still flying thru the area for the holidays.

Monday The Fun Day

We had plenty of volunteers here today (see above) and the week looks pretty good for the most part although we might get some freezing drizzle tonight. The lights show will be open to the public this Friday, December 16th (4:30 pm - 8 pm). I'm not one to mention names (Rollie, Maury, Gary, Marv, Del and Dick H.) but the guys above took an extra long break early today... Today was a "fun day" as I was able to start really going thru some catalogs and have finally sifted, sorted, purged and organized the past two years of photos (15,000+) so I'm able to utilize them for presentations and can minimize my time trying to find a specific shot. Kelli and I are figuring out the best way to back everything up in multiple locations too. I have roughly 20 categorical files for all my photos but could easily sub-divide those topics. I need to futher organize our historic photos (scanned from slides and photos) but overall, I'm glad to have caught up. To the left is Dr. Gredler going thru 5,000+ pens that we've had in storage for the past twelve years. These Parker pens have a neat flag design on them and were donated for our 10th anniversary way back in 1999. Most are still good but we need to sift out the dregs. I believe we'll be giving these away at upcoming events which may include the Holiday Lights Show (HLS).

We had a good turnout of volunteers. Larry H. and Dennis went out in the gardens to do some more clean-up. It's nice to have some gardening progress yet in December as this would be work we'd have to do in late March / early April when it is more soggy. Urban was out doing some more pruning. He, Larry and I will take a tour of the gardens later this week to discuss our pruning "targets" and goals for the winter months. We have some larger removals we'll consider as well. To the upper right is Bob A. putting the second coat of primer on the oak leaves for the 2012 Art in the Gardens project. Last year, some of the butterflies had some structural issues and we thought another coat of primer (we only did one last year) may make a difference for longevity out in the gardens. Vern, Jim and Dave worked on some other carpentry projects and we just gave them three more projects to consider for this winter. Aside from the guys mentioned above, we also saw Bill O., Mary W., Marianne and Janice (to the left) was in to go thru the latest catalogs. Here she is looking at potential tomato varieties for our 2012 veggie collections and spring plant sale. To the lower right is Dick H. who helped Larry put the chains on our Grasshopper mower/snowblower. Larry spent most of the day working on equipment repairs. Below are some newly repaired displays (thanks Randy!) that will be stored and used for the next HLS. Randy has been at the Horticulture Center working on repairs the past two Saturdays. However, we wont use them this year and compromise our power "grid". Randy (and his dad) were the original creator of these displays and we appreciate the generous maintenance package offered over the past decade!

Formulating 2012 Plans

With the Holiday Lights Show (HLS) ready for the public opening a week from today (December 16th), I've already shifted my focus almost entirely to 2012 plans and preparations. Although we're over five months from planting our annuals for next year, the progression of events leading up to planting need to follow a tight timeline. The first stage is perusing catalogs (over 80) and cross referencing availability and price. The next step is ordering. Once we receive the seeds, we organize them by collection, write color-coded tags to go with the seeds and separate them by desired grower. After the seeds are delivered to our four growers (by mid-March), we then don't worry about them until we pick up the final product (flats) in May. The images here are all moss roses (Portulaca grandiflora) which will be part of our big collection for 2012. I've already found about 50 varieties and we'll put them side by side like we did the marigolds (Tagetes) this year. The variety to the left is 'Happy Hour Orange', to the right is 'Happy Hour Coconut'. To the lower left, the yellow variety is 'Happy Hour Banana' and the white/pink variegated variety is 'Happy Hour Peppermint' (lower right). At the bottom is 'Sundial Peach', an old favorite and All-America Selections winner (1999) too. In regards to having seed varieties grown, we'll really be tweaking and augmenting the varieties that we grow both in the Smelly Garden (year 2) and the Ornamental Edible & Compact Vegetable collection. Last year we had a record 150,000 annuals grown representing 900 varieties for display.

Today was fairly quiet. I didn't make it out in the gardens yet but will be turning on the HLS lights for a private event tonight. HLS always looks better with some snow but I'm ok with not having to deal with snow removal issues quite yet. Del popped in this morning to take more deer cutouts to the gift shop and Janice was in this afternoon to go thru seed catalogs. Janice is selecting varieties of heirloom tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers and basils while I'll be selecting eggplants and compact varieties (good for containers too) of all sorts of veggies. All of these will be grown at RBG but will also be available at our spring plant sale (Mother's Day weekend). Maury was in to help receive a delivery of 8" diameter PVC pipe which will be converted in to some really cool garden features in 2012 (details later). Bill O. was in too and brought in a bunch of pine cones that will be used for a children's activity at the HLS. Next week will entirely involve 2012 plans and I'll continue to work on woody plant information for sign production this winter. It's nice to see so many volunteers coming in and hopefully we'll have plenty of help taking down the HLS which will start (weather depending) in early January.

Chilly But Sunny

Last night as Kris and I were waiting for the last rental group to leave the Parker Education Center (after Patty's lecture on Holiday Plants), I took the top photo of our Mission Statement on the wall near the entrance out in to the gardens. As a non-profit, it's always a challenge to raise funds to support and improve the organization. I take every chance I can to keep the focus on why were founded and what our primary mission is on a daily basis. The plaque to the right is installed outside the Sholl Education Room (Dedicated to original Grumpy and strong RBG support, Dr. P. Richard Sholl by his family). Dr. Sholl passed away a couple months before I started in 1998. Based on all that I've heard, he was an amazing person and was only second to Dr. Yahr (our founder) in terms of being an advocate for RBG. The frozen puddle above is testament to the chilly temperatures today but I was amazed by how many volunteers we had at our morning break. We had a great turnout with plenty of help throughout the day.

I had an interview this morning with Shelly Birkelow of The Janesville Gazette regarding the Holiday Lights Show (HLS) and we look forward to her article and exposure for this event which opens for the public a week from tomorrow (Friday, December 16th, 4:30 pm - 8 pm). Check out our website for details. We are still in dire need of refreshment donations for the HLS to be dropped off at the Parker Education Center. We need powdered milk, powdered creamer, powdered sugar, apple juice, cranberry juice, small marshmallows and Hershey's unsweetended cocoa powder. I also went mobile today and went thru the steps in applying for a passport. It looks like our April trip to the Netherlands (April 10-17) is a "go" although there is still room for some last minute additions... Below is Gary who is already starting to produce our woody plant labels for the alpine garden. I'm taking Luis' inventory and preparing the data for Gary who then produces the sign graphically and then thru the engraver. I'll be preparing another area for Gary to work on next week too. Aside from Gary, we had Dennis, Larry H. and Pat M. cleaning up out in the gardens. Larry and Bill were working on some projects. Our carpenters (Dave, Jim, Bob. A. and Vern) worked on the new shelves for the Horticulture Center office. Our reference library grew by about 200 books (donated) this past year and we need a new shelf system to absorb the increase and future additions. We also saw Urban, Rose, Bob T., Shirley T., Maury, Del, Janice, Dick H., Dr. Gredler, Mark S., Chuck, Rollie and Polly. Myrt and Gena were in later for clean-up work as well. Marv spent some time turning our massive compost pile (see below). We've added lots to this pile over the last couple of weeks and look at that compost a-smokin' with Marv turning it. We'll use this pile next March in all liklihood. The bottom photo is of our wood chip pile. One of the best times to apply mulches in the garden is this month before the snow flies. One of the intents of the mulch application now is to keep the ground frozen and minimize severe freezing and thawing in late winter / early spring (March).